


What is Love

by MortisBane



Category: Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)
Genre: M/M, just two idiots in love, short and sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-12-28 10:35:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21135317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MortisBane/pseuds/MortisBane
Summary: What it means for me and for you.





	What is Love

_ Love, is complicated. Affection, even more so. A person can internally asses themselves and their emotions, but acting on them is more difficult than coming to terms with them. The particularly hard part, is picking up on the feelings and affections of another person. To understand what body language they use, the points of contact, the tone and volume of their voice. Miss stepping here can lead to discomfort, embarrassment, possibly even a loss of relationships, which true ones are hard to come by. However, never acting or picking up on these thoughts and feelings can lead to similar outcomes, or the lack of fulfillment in one's life. There is no perfect method, no foolproof plan to go about such things, all a warrior can do when faced with the affections of another, are study, adapt, and put all their efforts forward, or risk failure. _

Eli Vanto was young, in his early thirties by now, his days at the academy far behind him, his progressing career before him, and his friend beside him. However, being young, he had less experience with feelings and affections that slipped into the romantic then he would have liked. He knew of familial love and platonic love, but romantic love was a nebulous cloud he had yet to navigate through. But Eli was nothing if not adaptive and a quick learner. So when the realization dawned on him that his thoughts for his friend and superior officer were too far outside the realm of platonic, he reeled back and assessed himself and his options going forward. He was mature, and the implications of his feelings were more severe than that of a harmless schoolyard crush. However, he began to notice certain actions and words from Thrawn that made the man appear to be leaning towards Eli in his self reflecting pit of romantic tension. With that realization, there was no stopping him.

The actions were more subtle than expected from a Human, but Eli had spent so much time with the Chiss that it was easy for him to spot actions out of the ordinary. Like lingering hands brushing when passing off datapads. Shoulders and hips touching during briefings where they didn't need to be, private meetings alone in Thrawn's office when the briefing room would have sufficed. The slips of Eli's name, going from Commander Vanto, to just Eli seemingly at random and by accident. But Thrawn never did anything by accident, every action, every thought, every uttered word, was carefully calculated and chosen. Meaning all of this was completely intentional.

Thrawn was showing his love in the odd way Thrawn seemed to do everything. Subtly, in ways that only people who really truly knew the Chiss could spot. And Eli was the only person Thrawn knew -outside of a Jedi- who could probably pick up on such things. So he was right in his assumptions, Thrawn had fallen into the pit of romantic tension right alongside Eli, and it was up to poor inexperienced Eli to pull them back out, or let them lie there until the end of time. Both options had their merits, one allowing Eli to save face and keep himself from embarrassment, the other letting him have the thing his heart and his soul yearned for most. In the end, there really was only one choice.

Love can be shown in so many different ways. For Eli, it can be saving his serving of dessert and giving it to Thrawn, whom he knew had a bit of a sweet tooth. It could be finishing up mindless paperwork ahead of schedule to save Thrawn the time which he could spend on better things. It was searching for interesting art pieces from odd groups of aliens and purchasing them for Thrawn, because he never felt he had learned enough. Or it could be staying up well into the night cycle listening to Thrawn explain some puzzle he'd solved because the smooth tone of his voice felt like honey over Eli's ears.

For Thrawn, it was shifting schedules to give Eli a little extra sleep, because he knew the Human was always tired. It was assigning shore leave anytime they drifted just close enough to Lysatra in their patrol routes. It was using his influence as an admiral to order in some fresh foods and dishes so Eli could get a taste of a cooked meal when he complained about Imperial rations. It was carding his fingers through brown loches when he read over the Human's shoulder.

For them both, it meant the meeting of lips in a slow and warm embrace late into the night shift. Upturned smiles as they danced in each other's arms around Thrawn's office listening to melodic waltz from Lysatra. It was legs twined together in bed, sharing warmth and breath as they dozed. It was sweet nothings whispered into each other's ears like prayers. It was the flame of desire deep in the pits of their stomachs, the pull of longing in their hearts, and the spark of adoration in their eyes.

For Thrawn, it was sending Eli away, to spread his wings and fly among the Chiss, and make a proper impact on the galaxy, even if that meant he'd be left without the man at his side any longer.

For Eli, it was saying yes to Thrawn and leaving a part of his heart behind with the Chiss as he lived in Thrawn’s old word to protect his people.

It was the promise to protect their respective people from opposite sides of the galaxy.

It was the promise of a reunion to come.

**Author's Note:**

> Something short and sweet I whipped up and wanted to share before Thrantober starts next week. Hope you enjoyed <3 Come say hi on Tumblr!
> 
> Stay Wizard  
~[Mortis](https://mortisbane.tumblr.com/)


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